I just noticed that my 8x was actually made in Taiwan. That's good to know. I assumed all cell phone were made in the Peoples Republic these days.
Sent from my PM23300 using Board Express

Its something that no one is interested in these days. I don't know about you but when Im enjoying a steak, knowing where it came from and how it was made makes all the difference. Yepp, there might also be a political stance to why it says made in Taiwan, as Taiwan isn't considered officially to be separate form China, but that's another story for an entirely different subject. However it is one reason why I buy HTC, because they are made by professionals, by people who know what they are doing. I had a HTC Legend once that I bought on a foreign website in India unbeknown to me, found out that it was made in China, so I phoned up HTC, they couldn't make it out at the time, so they asked for it back for one that was made in Taiwan! Now that is customer service!

Well, I never owned a Nokia phone (yes, my first phone was a Motorola xD), but I now own a HTC HD7, and must say, it survived a lot of drops and other things. I lived in Singapore for a couple of months and travelled around SE Asia, now I'm back in Switzerland with loads of snow and freezing temperatures. Had no issues what so ever with my HD7!! I am very surprised indeed! :D

Well, I never owned a Nokia phone (yes, my first phone was a Motorola xD), but I now own a HTC HD7, and must say, it survived a lot of drops and other things. I lived in Singapore for a couple of months and travelled around SE Asia, now I'm back in Switzerland with loads of snow and freezing temperatures. Had no issues what so ever with my HD7!! I am very surprised indeed! :D

Both HTC and Nokia have great build quality.
But, you must consider the fact that Nokia is currently not making enough 920s (and from what I've heard, too many 820s), and most of the problematic phones were the first batch (like most Nokia phones). On the other hand, HTC appears to have no problems with the supply of the 8X and 8S.

First of all, I admire Nokia's build quality. I still keep, and use, working Symbian phones, and you might infer that these are very old. My family's Asha phones, despite being thrown around multiple times, have only a few scratches on them. And, some of my classmates still use very old S60 5th Edition phones, which have obviously not been treated with care.
Any replacements were brought by:
A. Symbian (understandable)
B. How old the phone is
C. Battery life coming to an end
HTC's build quality is also great. A Nokia fanboy I know used to own an HTC Magician. And, any replacements of HTC products were brought about by:
A. Subpar battery life
B. Lack of any software updates

Both HTC and Nokia have great build quality.
But, you must consider the fact that Nokia is currently not making enough 920s (and from what I've heard, too many 820s), and most of the problematic phones were the first batch (like most Nokia phones). On the other hand, HTC appears to have no problems with the supply of the 8X and 8S.

First of all, I admire Nokia's build quality. I still keep, and use, working Symbian phones, and you might infer that these are very old. My family's Asha phones, despite being thrown around multiple times, have only a few scratches on them. And, some of my classmates still use very old S60 5th Edition phones, which have obviously not been treated with care.

I have an E63 running S60 3rd edition, it's five years old but still nearly flawless. The rubber flaps for microSD and microUSB has rotted and fallen off, but otherwise, it's in pristine condition. Mind you, I use it everyday, almost as much as my 8X. I have to say that the build quality compared to the current Lumias, is beyond comparison. Dropped my 820 once, scratch! Drop and throw my E63 anywhere, it's still flawless.

tl;dr: Nokia's build quality USED to be good. HTC's is currently doing great.

I've never had a problem with HTC. I had the original HTC Droid Incredible and it was a great phone - no problems. And now the 8X and it is solid and beautiful. I hear all the complaints but I have had none of the problems mentioned. And I think the Gorilla Glass screen is fantastic. The Galaxy Nexus I had previous to this did not have it and the Bionic I had prior to the Nexus did. I missed the Gorilla Glass immensely on the Nexus. Not only is it sturdier, but I think it also doesn't smear and hold prints as badly and is easier to wipe clean. I'm very, very happy with all aspects of the 8X!

I have been using the HTC 8X for two months now and am very pleased with it. It is just the right size, easy to hold and carry and very stable. The only minor annoyance is the camera button on the side. It is handy but I am always taking photos by accident. Not a big deal. My favorite feature is the dedicated back arrow. I had an IPhone previously and would have to close the program and come back in to get where I wanted. Battery life is excellent.

I have an E63 running S60 3rd edition, it's five years old but still nearly flawless. The rubber flaps for microSD and microUSB has rotted and fallen off, but otherwise, it's in pristine condition. Mind you, I use it everyday, almost as much as my 8X. I have to say that the build quality compared to the current Lumias, is beyond comparison. Dropped my 820 once, scratch! Drop and throw my E63 anywhere, it's still flawless.

tl;dr: Nokia's build quality USED to be good. HTC's is currently doing great.

I was having trouble wrapping my head around the build quality issues because people keep repeating Nokia's reputation for solid build quality and that conflicts with what appears to be going on. So I dug a little deeper and found out that Nokia's rep rested largely with their era of making their own phones. I didn't find out until recently that they're now using the same mass production Foxconn plants a bunch of other companies are, so that was my "Aha" moment.

HTC largely still use their own homeland plants for their devices, although they also have a smaller plant in Brazil. Aside from the initial cosmetic issues of discoloration that seem to be going away, and the random reboots that appeared to be an OS and not a hardware related issue, I haven't heard of really anything negative of note about the 8x.

I was having trouble wrapping my head around the build quality issues because people keep repeating Nokia's reputation for solid build quality and that conflicts with what appears to be going on. So I dug a little deeper and found out that Nokia's rep rested largely with their era of making their own phones. I didn't find out until recently that they're now using the same mass production Foxconn plants a bunch of other companies are, so that was my "Aha" moment.

HTC largely still use their own homeland plants for their devices, although they also have a smaller plant in Brazil. Aside from the initial cosmetic issues of discoloration that seem to be going away, and the random reboots that appeared to be an OS and not a hardware related issue, I haven't heard of really anything negative of note about the 8x.

Yepp, Nokia will tell you a lot of things. I knew ever since Nokia decided to close down their last production facility in Finland, much to the anger of their dedicated workers and the Finish peoples pride that their jobs would be outsourced to China, this was over a year ago. If you lucky enough to find a very early Lumia 800 you may find that it says made in Finland. Similar to what you said, HTC make between 80 and 90% of their phones in their homeland Taiwan and a very small amount in China, however the Chinese made ones are only for sale in Asian countries - China, India, Pakistan because China puts a heavy import tax on foreign made goods, and well, HTC don't want to loose out on a market of 1.3 billion strong do they ;) The rest of the world, the west, Japan, Korea, Australia ect are made in Taiwan and to a high quality. Ive seen the videos and heard the reports, the way they test to phones - they bend them, drop them, kick them till destruction. They put stress tests for hot and cold weather and all sorts. Its a national pride for Taiwan Im guessing, and like you said, the bad reports of HTC's you hear are mainly software related, not hardware. You're right in what you say.

I've had x3 Lumia 920s and all have had defects of some kind. My current one, which I appear stuck with, has a light leak on the right of the buttons, a loose volume rocker and the GPS doesn't work all the time/ cuts out (must be a loose connector inside). On top of that I still haven't received Portico update from them.

My brother's 8x on the other hand has no build issues and received Portico upon its release way back in November!

Similar to what you said, HTC make between 80 and 90% of their phones in their homeland Taiwan and a very small amount in China, however the Chinese made ones are only for sale in Asian countries - China, India, Pakistan because China puts a heavy import tax on foreign made goods, and well, HTC don't want to loose out on a market of 1.3 billion strong do they ;) The rest of the world, the west, Japan, Korea, Australia ect are made in Taiwan and to a high quality. Ive seen the videos and heard the reports, the way they test to phones - they bend them, drop them, kick them till destruction. They put stress tests for hot and cold weather and all sorts. Its a national pride for Taiwan Im guessing, and like you said, the bad reports of HTC's you hear are mainly software related, not hardware. You're right in what you say.

So what Europe needs is a 5000000000% (yes, five BILLION percent) import tax on stuff not made in Europe. That would sway Nokia to bring the jobs back to the Finns.

So what Europe needs is a 5000000000% (yes, five BILLION percent) import tax on stuff not made in Europe. That would sway Nokia to bring the jobs back to the Finns.

I don't know about 5 billion per cent but I would say if they put a 40 to 50% tax on goods made outside of the EU that would encourage a lot of European companies who have outsourced their production to bring it back to their homelands. Manufacturing - supply and demand is the foundation of the worlds entire economy and manufacturing plays a huge part of it. Beijing's entire economy is dependant on the rest of the world buying Chinese made goods. There was a recent study that found about 6 months ago when Chinas economy started showing signs of slowing down, that that was down to Italy and Spain not buying their goods. They are just two countries out of many of Chinas consumers. It makes you think. Anyway, off topic.

If you're in North America it will most certainly say made in Taiwan on it. Allthe HTC'sI have bought which date back 3 years now, the Wildfire, the Explorer, the Titan and the 8X all say made in Taiwan. The Legend which was from India unknowingly to me said made in China, but Chinese made models are most probably for the Chinese and Indian market only, where they can sell them cheaper. But yes, It will most probably be Taiwanese made. They will probably all be made in Taiwan.

I have owned the HD2, HD7 and not 8X. I have had zero issues with build quality on HTC's, aside from the discolouration issue with the 8X. I periodically clean it back to acceptable levels when I find the time.